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You Can Thank Ronald Reagan For All Of These Awful Infomercials
How one of America’s most popular presidents gave us long form commercials
If you have ever flipped on the television at 2 AM, you likely have had the pleasure of flipping through dozens of infomercials. These long form commercials dominate late night television. They run for 30 to 60 minutes and far outlast regular 30 second spots. These commercials are annoying and campy, but most people see them as a necessary evil of modern cable programming.
Infomercials were not always a thing. In fact, for a long time, cable television was heavily regulated by the federal government, and the government had no interest or thought of allowing dozens of hours of suspect advertising to run every night. For the longest time, television ended around midnight, and until dawn, television channels shut down. Static snow and colorful bars would play instead of programming. That all changed in 1984 with the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. This banal sounding name heads a landmark bill that heavily deregulated the cable TV industry leading to all sorts of unforeseen consequences like infomercials.
Opening The Door
On October 30th, 1984, President Reagan put his pen to the bill that changed television forever. With…
